Saturday, 11 March 2017

Brain Surgeon Cuts Wrong Side of Patient’s Head

A neurosurgeon in Hong Kong made a major medical blunder when performing urgent brain surgery on a 54-year-old woman at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The right craniotomy began on the patient's left side of her skull with the neurosurgeon removing a bone flap. The anaesthetist realised the error during the operation, at which time the neurosurgeon replaced the left bone flap, while a second neurosurgeon performed the craniotomy on the right side of the patient's skull.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong

UPDATE UPDATE

A Hong Kong brain surgeon who operated
on the wrong side of a patient’s skull may have made a crucial error
well before surgery even began, according to the city’s health minister.

Secretary for the Food and Health Dr Ko
Wing-man described an incident at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in which
the left side of a 54-year-old woman’s skull was cut open instead of the
right, as “a serious mishap”.

He stressed that doctors had followed
procedure prior to the surgery, but it was possible the doctor involved
wrongly identified the correct side of the skull from the brain scan
images.

A serious medical blunder at the
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in which a doctor operated on the wrong side
of a patient’s skull, has led to an investigation by the facility.

The doctor cut open the left side of a
woman’s skull, when it was actually the right side that was bleeding and
in need of surgery.

The 54-year-old woman was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Tuesday night.

A brain scan conducted the next day
showed that the patient suffered from an aneurysm in the right brain
causing an increase in intracranial pressure.

The woman was battling a critical and life-threatening situation.

“The neurosurgeon arranged an urgent
craniotomy to drain the cerebrospinal fluid to release high intracranial
pressure, but removed a bone flap on the left side of the skull
inadvertently,” the Hospital Authority said in a statement on Friday.

The surgeon only realised the mistake when an anaesthetist spotted the error while reviewing the report during the operation.

“The neurosurgeon immediately placed
back the bone flap on the left side of the skull while another
neurosurgeon performed a right craniotomy.

“The neurosurgical team explained the
situation to the patient’s family in the afternoon on the same day,” the
statement further read.

The correct operation drained the
patient’s cerebrospinal fluid and removed blood clots. A clipping of the
aneurysm – to prevent risks from bleeding – was also performed.

The authority said the hospital noted
that the medical team had provided prompt clinical treatment to the
patient and that it had apologised for the mistake.

The patient is still hospitalised and in a stable condition.

The authority is expected to receive the investigation report in eight weeks.

Featured Post

About Me

Perhaps Thomas Jefferson said it best with: “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error“. Much error exists in the world and this blog, from the perspective of one Hong Kong SAR resident, is a small attempt to minimize errors.
(this site was formerly HKSAR Blog)